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afghanistanbomb Headline

WASHINGTON – B-52 and B-1 bombers pounded Taliban troops, command bunkers and weapons with deadly cluster and other bombs on Thursday as U.S. warplanes struck targets across Afghanistan for a fifth day, defense officials said. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said a "full range of weaponry", including 5,000-pound bombs, were being used against targets ranging from underground command bunkers of Taliban leaders to tanks and guerrilla training camps. Other defense officials told Reuters the strikes included cluster bombs that open on descent, releasing dozens of high-explosive bomblets to kill troops and destroy equipment. As the Pentagon released more dramatic photographs and videotape of bomb damage to the Taliban military, Rumsfeld declined comment on the arrival of U.S. troops at two bases in Pakistan on Wednesday for possible strikes into Afghanistan. Responding to reports of growing civilian casualties in the capital of Kabul and Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in Thursday's intense bombing, he conceded at a press conference that satellite-guided bombs did not always work perfectly. He bitterly attacked the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan for accusing the Pentagon of intentionally targeting Afghan civilians. "It comes with ill grace for the Taliban to be suggesting that we are doing what they have made a practice and a livelihood out of," the secretary said. The United States accuses the Taliban of harboring Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden, who Washington says masterminded devastating Sept. 11 attacks on America that left more than 5,000 people dead. Despite earlier statements by Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. military Joint Chiefs of Staff, that U.S. and British strikes had virtually wiped out Afghan air defenses, the secretary said on Thursday the Taliban still had some air defenses. "We have to acknowledge the reality that there is still an air defense threat to the United States," he said, adding that U.S. warplanes still faced shoulder-fired "Stinger" missiles and other missiles and anti-aircraft guns. Rumsfeld said 5,000-pound bombs, which he called "the big ones," and earth-penetrating bombs had been used to hit caves where anti-Western guerrillas take refuge and underground command military bunkers of the Taliban. "I have seen several examples where there were enormous secondary explosions, in some cases that went on for several hours after targeting underground facilities," the secretary told reporters. Rumsfeld stressed again that the United States was encouraging anti-Taliban opposition forces such as the Afghan Northern Alliance to overthrow the country's leaders, but he declined to say whether the U.S. military was directly targeting Taliban troops dug in ahead of Northern Alliance positions. The secretary said he believed bin Laden was still in Afghanistan but that the fugitive might flee that country through its long and porous borders with neighboring states. The Pentagon on Thursday released before-and-after aerial photos of U.S. targets in Afghanistan showing damage from strikes on a Taliban regiment headquarters in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a radio station near Kabul and an airfield near Herat. The Mazar-i-Sharif garrison site, just south of the Afghan border with Uzbekistan, includes troops, tanks, armored and support vehicles and other facilities, according to U.S. Marine Gen. Henry Osman, who is in charge of operational planning for the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The photos showed two maintenance buildings there had been destroyed. Other pictures showed two radio control buildings damaged and a string of fighter planes and one transport aircraft lying like broken toys on the airfield. An Air Force sergeant on active duty on the northern Arabian peninsula, meanwhile, became the first announced fatality of the operation. The Air Force said Master Sergeant Evander Andrews, based at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, was killed early on Wednesday in a heavy equipment accident. No further details were provided. While Rumsfeld refused to comment on U.S. troop movements, Pakistani officials confirmed American troops had begun arriving on Wednesday. Pakistani media reported that U.S. Marines, aircraft, helicopters and other military personnel had arrived at Jacobabad in southern Sindh province and the remote coastal town of Pasni on the Arabian Seat in arid Baluchistan province.